Leader of The Nationals and Shadow Agriculture Minister David Littleproud is calling for an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Inquiry into fruit and vegetables, to make supermarkets pay their fair share.
As families struggle to pay for their food amid a cost-of-living crisis, supermarkets are still making record profits, even though all they are doing is putting fruit and vegetables on the back of a truck and onto the supermarket shelves, the Maranoa MP said.
“Farmers are walking away because supermarkets are taking them for a ride,” Mr Littleproud said.
Over the past few weeks, Natural Earth Produce Victorian farmer Ross Marsolino said he was prepared to walk away from an 80-acre zucchini crop if he couldn’t get more than $2 a kilo in 2024.
“We will walk away from the whole farm this year if we have to,” he said.
“I have 50 workers who will have to go and find another job. The supermarkets are buying our product for $1.80 a kilo but then retailing them for $4.99 a kilo when in reality our product should be selling for under $3 a kilo.
“Since covid, supermarkets have got stronger and stronger. Now supermarkets make too much profit out of our crop and we simply can’t survive.
“The more you produce the more you lose. They dictate the price and I have no confidence in supermarkets anymore.”
Daintree Fresh Far North Queensland farmer Shaun Jackson is warning Australia will run out of food as farmers stop selling to supermarkets and walk away.
He said 80 per cent of his product, melons, is now going to Japan because in Australia, an average melon would sell to the supermarkets for up to $1.50 each, but supermarkets would then sell the exact same product to consumers for around $5.90 each.
“Instead of dealing with Coles and Woolworths I’m now sending 200,000 boxes of melons overseas,” Mr Jackson said.
“My cost to production is $14 for a box, right now the supermarket price is $12 to $14 a box. For that, it costs me $4 per box to get the product from a truck to Brisbane.
“So I’m gone, it’s goodbye Shaun if that continues in 2024.
“It’s not just me. We are on the precipice of losing 30 per cent of farming – which is 30 per cent of food – if we don’t fix it.”
Mr Jackson’s concerns have been backed by AusVeg, whose recent survey found record-low morale and more than 30 per cent of Australian vegetable growers considering leaving the industry this year, with labour shortages, policy changes and rising operational costs their major concerns.
Coles and Woolworths own 65 per cent of the market share and made record profits of more than $1 billion each last year.
Mr Littleproud said the matter was urgent and a Senate Inquiry into grocery prices this year wouldn’t go far enough.
“I previously called for an ACCC Inquiry into beef and lamb but it must also now investigate fruit and vegetables – we need to investigate the price disparity, compel CEOs to give evidence and have greater penalties for those who do the wrong thing, including not paying farmers a fair price.”
